23 Gold Diggers Guide 1864

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FOR GOLD. 13
a Sluicing " as it is generally worked iu Australia,
and as it will bo worked in Canada, does not require
much water. A very small stream, such as the " Des
Plantes" or the "Gilbert," in the driest seasons, will
supply enough water for all the sluices that could
possibly be worked in the neighbourhood of those
streams ;
about 12 square inches of water will work a
sluice of 14 inches wide. " Surface " will generally
be found on hills, and can be worked with a sluice,
*'
long torn," or cradle. Where you can get a head
of water, even a fcAV inches higher than the "surface,"
you can very profitably employ a sluice.
Place the top length of the sluice on the lowest part
of the ground you intend to wash, having the .water
(about eight or ten inches will bo found sulEcient)
conveyed to your sluice by a common canvass hose,
or wooden "dal" or spout. Have your sluice at a
proper inclination ; if the gold is very fine, about four
inches in twelve feet will be found sufficient. One or
two men, at each side of the sluice, are kept constantly
at work, picking up the surface and shoveling it into
the sluice. When the surface has a "slate" bottom
you had better pick up the slate to some depth,
breaking it up small enough J;o lay in the bottom of
the sluice ; and one of the party will be profitably
employed using a knife to scrape the pieces of slate,
and throw them out of the sluice, when clean. As I
have said before, you must prevent the sluice being
filled up with roots or stones.
Once a week or so, generally on a Saturday, you
"cleanup," as it is called. You commence at the
lower end of the sluice (a), allowing but very little water
to run ;
you take out the " rifiie," and carefully wash